Forging a 2.5kg Racing Style Axe

Build video:

In this video I forge a large racing style from a piece of 300x100x10 mm piece of mild steel with an old file forge welded for a cutting edge. The axe head weighs 2.5kg.

It is a lot of work to draw the edge of the axe without a striker but I wanted to test the hammer I made in the previous video. This axe is almost entirely made with homemade tools with the exception of an angle grinder and a bandsaw which I used very little because it was way too slow.

The handle is ash and I tried putting some nice curves in the handle to make it a lot more comfortable and I think I was successful in doing that. The palm swell is a little bit different in the end product than what you can see me shaping with a rasp and sandpaper. I modeled the end after a tuatahi racing axe handle which you can see in this axe review:

I tested the axe on a pretty large plum tree which is hardwood and is really tough to cut down with an axe. It had great penetration but my striking technique is really poor and I'm not really precise with my cuts.